This entire site, including all its pages, is copyright © Stephen S. Roberts, 2001-2008 or later as indicated.

U. S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels

1922-1945

Use the sidebar or click on this photograph to access the ship listings, or read the instructions below and click "Enter."



The ammunition ship USS Rainier (AE-5) replenishing USS Antietam (CV-36) and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) in 1952.

This portion of the Shipscribe site contains reference information on the auxiliary vessels of the United States Navy that were on hand or added to the force between 1922 and 1945.  For each ship the site provides name and classification, technical specifications, procurement history, and dates of and other relevant data on construction, commissioning, and disposal.  Changes in this information that occurred during the ship's career are identified, including those after 1945, but other career details, notably operational history, are outside the scope of this work. 

New!! Information Posted Recently
May 2007: The attack transports: APA-1, APA-2, APA-4, APA-6, APA-10, APA-18, APA-21, APA-25, APA-33 Part 1, APA-33 Part 2, APA-49, APA-52, APA-55, APA-57, APA-89, and APA-117.
June 2007: The combat-loaded and "quasi-attack" transports: AP-13, AP-42, AP-46, AP-67, AP-68, AP-69, AP-71, AP-72, AP-73, AP-76, AP-77, AP-102, AP-103, AP-171, and AP-172. The term "quasi-attack" for the last four of these classes is from Norman Friedman.
June 2007: The remaining LST conversons: APB-35, APB-41, APB-45, ARB-1, ARL-1, ARL-10, ARL-40, ARSD-1, ARST-1, ARVA-5, and ARVE-3. For the other LST conversion see the AGP-4 and AGP-20 classes.
July 2007: The larger repair ships: AR-5, AR-9, AR-10, AR-13, AR-17, ARG-2 and ARV-1. The smaller repair ship types are included in the LST conversions, above.
November 2007: The McKellar section of the Shipscribe site was completed and posted. During the first half of 2008 major contributions were made to the World War I portion of the Naval Historical Center's Online Library.
July 2008: The submarine tenders: AS-11, AS-13, AS-20, AS-21, AS-22, AS-23; the large seaplane tenders: AV-4, AV-7, AV-8, AV-9, AV-10, AV-14; and the Vehicle Landing Ships: LSV-1, LSV-3. The introductory pages were modified to focus on the 1922-45 period.
August 2008: Some specialized cargo and transport classes: AKN-1, AKN-5, AKS-1, AKS-5, APH-1, APM-9, APV-1, AVS-1, and AVS-5, plus a short appendix on the Auxiliary Vessels Board.

Ships are listed by type using standard U. S. Navy classifications (AD: Destroyer Tender, etc.) and class.  To proceed to the ship class pages that have been posted, click "enter" below or click on the photograph at the top of this page to access the main ship type page. On the type page, click on anything that is highlighted by your browser as a hyperlink.  If you want full data on the class with links to its photographs, click the link on the left; if you want to go directly to the photographs, click the link on the right. (The sidebar on the left of the screen provides short cuts to these pages.) The lines that are not yet links are promises of things to come and indicate the full dimensions of this project. 

Enter
This site is a cyber sequel to the book Register of Ships of the U. S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants, by K. Jack Bauer and Stephen S. Roberts, published by Greenwood Press in 1991.  It emulates the scope and format of that volume and uses the same nomenclature and abbreviations.  For more information on Major Combatants follow these links to descriptions by two on-line retailers:


Whenever possible, representative photographs have been provided for each ship class. They are primarily from the U. S. Naval Historical Center and from Record Groups 19-LCM and 80-G at the U. S. National Archives. Unlike the other information on this site, all of which is copyright © by Stephen S. Roberts, all photographs that originated from U.S. Government collections or that have U.S. Government file numbers are believed to be in the public domain. For most classes, the photographs provided here are only a small proportion of those in existence. For a major online resource on photographs of U. S. Navy ships, follow this link to the U. S. Naval Historical Center and click on the picture to access its Online Library:

NHC Photographic Collection



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